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Guidelight: Investigating low-carbon solutions for low-income homes

Solar thermal panels on a roof

A partnership research project to improve the uptake of low-carbon technologies in the homes of vulnerable and low-income energy consumers.

Guidelight investigated how to improve the uptake and performance of low-carbon technologies (LCTs) – such as heat pumps and solar panels – installed in homes through publicly funded retrofit schemes in the south of England.

When LCTs are installed into homes, they don’t always achieve the anticipated level of performance. This can be due to a variety of social and technical factors, such as poor installation and non-inclusive service design. Investigating these factors – which contribute towards the performance gap – will help to understand how to better support households to switch to LCTs and give them the confidence to use them effectively.

Enhancing the uptake and use of low-carbon technologies

Guidelight aims to find innovative approaches that will make access to energy saving technologies easier, eliminating obstacles to the adoption and use of LCTs in low-income and vulnerable households.

These interventions might include information tools and guidance on LCT use, accessible digital dashboards and low-cost monitoring services for a variety of stakeholders including households, local authorities, social housing providers, retrofit contractors and community energy advice organisations.

Improving retrofit offers for low-income households

Some local authorities have traditionally offered retrofit funds and grants for low-income households to install LCTs. For example, heat pumps, solar panels, battery storage, and smart heating controls. But through our work directly with people through our advice line and other projects, CSE understands that lots of people have had a hard time using them properly because of factors such as products and services not being inclusive, not being able to access digital tools, not knowing much about energy, or not having enough money.

Without any support for switching tariffs or using digital optimisation tools, retrofit schemes could actually lead to higher energy bills and reduced home comfort for these households, along with potentially adding strain to the electricity network.

Speaking about the project, Dr Charlotte Johnson, Head of Research Programmes at CSE said:

Inclusive innovation is core to achieving the wide public participation needed for the UK’s energy transition. Through this project, we can start exploring how vulnerable consumers’ needs and expectations can be included in the sector’s understanding of how to roll out and optimise low-carbon technologies.

The project has undertaken two phases so far. Find out more about them.

The initial phase of the project was a three-month-long, early-stage feasibility study, which began in April 2023. It involved:

  • Developing qualitative social research methods to engage low-income and vulnerable households’ experiences of retrofit.
  • Reviewing options for monitoring the performance of low-carbon technologies.
  • Developing a list of interventions which can be piloted and scaled during future research phases.

Dr Ben Anderson, who was Principal Research Fellow, at the University of Southampton during the initial study said

“The Energy and Climate Change Division at the University of Southampton was delighted to support UK Power Networks and CSE on this short duration Discovery project. We have a long-standing interest and internationally respected expertise in understanding technical and socio-technical building performance gaps which will be vital to ensuring the effective and efficient use of low-carbon technologies in the home.”

During the latest phase of research which started in October 2023, Guidelight has been seeking to investigate the performance gap of LCTs by combining both social and technical research design. The performance gap is the social and technical factors that affect how efficiently an LCT works, such as quality of installation or non-inclusive design. CSE is gathering feedback on householder experiences of the retrofit journey and use of LCTs, whilst the University of Southampton is designing an in-home monitoring device to measure the performance of LCTs. Together, this will provide valuable evidence on the barriers people are facing to using their LCTs optimally within the home.

Furthermore, evidence from this research, coupled with wider stakeholder engagement with industry professionals (e.g., distribution network operators, local authorities, and community energy and advice organisations) is being used to identify a range of interventions for a variety of different end-users including households, which could help to address the performance gap.
These interventions could include:

  • Information tools and guidance on LCT use to boost user confidence.
  • Vulnerability assessment and training materials to enhance the retrofit journey for households requiring additional assistance.
  • Community champion and engagement materials to empower local communities to use LCTs and share knowledge with others.
  • Low-cost monitoring of installed technologies to identify when issues arise.

About the project

The collaborative project is led by UK Power Networks. The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and the University of Southampton conduct research, with Sia Partners exploring the route to market, and stakeholder expertise contributed by three local authority partners, London Borough of Hackney, Portsmouth City Council and Somerset Council. Additional supporters and advisors include Utilita and Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks.

Guidelight is funded by energy network users and consumers through the Strategic Innovation Fund. This programme is from the UK’s independent energy regulator Ofgem managed in partnership with Innovate UK.

This funding is part of the Discovery Phase of Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund competition process. It is not guaranteed to progress to later funding phases or to become a commercial reality.

Ofgem’s funding will enable the project to research opportunities for energy network innovation. This includes widening consumer participation in the energy transition and identifying and addressing socio-technical gaps in low-carbon technology performance.

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